A Weather Geek’s Story-The Winter of 2020–2021

Once a Weather Geek Always a Weather Geek

This Winter So Far

As I watch the weather this morning, there is talk of 2 more storms coming this week, some promising to bring heavy snow. Say what? More snow? We are definitively not out of the woods yet. In fact, with all this snow, Spring may be slow to come.

This has been quite the winter so far. About a week before Christmas (12/17/20), we got buried with 30 inches of snow. I couldn’t believe it. Especially since they only predicted 8 to 12 inches. It was a chore just to get to my garage to bring out the snowblower. The big beast. It took a lot of hours to get that all cleared away. I broke out my skis. It was almost too much snow to ski.

About a week later, just before Christmas, it warmed up and we received 2 to 3 inches of rain. Snow gone. Some minor river flooding ensued in the valleys. Luckily not us, since we are perched upon a hilltop at about 1500 feet elevation. Good ole Polkville Hill.

Here we go again. I was disappointed. Another up and down winter, fueled by climate change? Snow to rain. Large temperature swings. Snow melts. Cold again. Everything ice. A vicious cycle.

However, since that December storm that melted a week later, we have received a lot of snow. Every few days. Almost 2 months now. It has stayed. Piled up. Almost 2 feet on the ground now. Skiing conditions are fantastic.

It’s been a while since we’ve had a good old-fashioned winter. It reminds me of when I was a kid. Winters weren’t always consistent in the late 1960s and1970s, but for the most part, we got a lot of snow.

That's when my love of weather began.

A Weather Geek Is Born

I became interested in weather at an early age. The weather was always interesting in rural Sullivan County NY atop a hilltop at about 1700 feet elevation. The foothills of the Catskill Mountains, ironically only about 75 miles south of where I live now.

The similarities are remarkable. The house I grew up in is a large farmhouse, once a boarding house run by my grandparents. Right across the road is the large barn, but owned by the farmer who lived in the house next door. The house and about an acre and a half was separated from the farm.

The house my wife and I bought in 1992 is a large farmhouse, and across the road is the barn. Same situation, house separated from the farm. Both houses on a hill. Where the wind blows.

When I was about 12, I received a weather kit for Christmas. It had a thermometer, barometer, rain gauge, sling psychrometer, and cards to record high and low temperatures, rainfall, etc. I believe it came with a book, and I remember studying about the different types of clouds, etc. I loved keeping track of weather data.

It wasn’t too much longer when I got an indoor/outdoor thermometer. What a marvelous invention! You know, the ones with the sensor and cable you had to snake out through the window frame. Long before the days of wireless thermometers. Out came the drill to run the cable, then the caulk to seal the hole. What a convenience to be able to read the outdoor temps from the comfort of a warm house!

Then there were the handheld wind meters. That was always interesting, standing outside to see what the wind speed was!

Fast forward to 2021. Guess what? I still am fascinated with weather. Wireless technology and electronics have made it even more fun to track the weather. I now have 2 weather stations, with sensors at different locations on my property. My one and a quarter acres. One measures pretty much everything including temperature, barometric pressure, wind speed and direction, rainfall, and relative humidity. The other temperature, wind speed, relative humidity. Believe it or not, conditions can vary even in your yard. The biggest difference is wind speed.

Since my yard is sloped, especially the back yard down to our pond, the temperature also varies from the weather sensor located on the highest point of my property to the sensor at the lowest location. It’s amazing, sometimes 5 degrees colder at the lower location behind the pond. The elevation difference is probably about 30 feet.

Looking Forward

This week is looking to be very interesting weather-wise. More snow on the way. The winter continues. But before we know it, Spring will be here.